Mike and Ashley's 150g reef tank (our first)

[scuzy]

Only a batch. They've since fixed it. I've had my 4 heaters for a long time. But I don't have anything larger than a 100w. It's easy to dismiss a product just because of some failures. Granted the failures were pretty bad but glass heaters have been breaking since forever and we are still using them.


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I'm sure glass heaters been breaking but usalky due to user errors like leaving out in with no water or breaking it cause you banged it. Never heard enough blowing up while working

 

[Wlachnit]

I've had glass heaters fail on me. One of them even fried everything in one of my coral tanks. Been thinking about switching over to the Neotherms. I also set up my redundancy similar to @Flagg37.


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[WCKDVPR]

OK, cycling the tank is tougher than I thought. I really want to get something going in QT...........

Here is where the tank is at.......

I put in 4 ppm of ammonia Sunday and enough Dr. Tim's for 180 gallons (the actual water volume is about 160 from when I filled the tank and sump). It is now reading between 2 and 3 ppm. No sign of any nitrite yet. I calibrated all the apex probes. As of this afternoon, I tested a bunch of parameters and here is what I have (I have been slowly adding sodium bicarbonate to bring the Alk up from a baseline of 5.8):
Temp: 80-81 (to get the bacteria going, per recommendation)
Sal: 35 on the Milwaukee, 34.4 on the apex probe
Alk: 9.7
Ca: 437
Mg: 1410
Phos: 0.00
pH: 7.9 (should wind up higher given there is a decent amount of ammonia in the water right now - at least I hope so)
Ammonia: 2-3 ppm
Nitrite and Nitrate: 0.0
No lighting other than ambient
Restarted the skimmer after 48 hours per the directions for Dr. Tim's.

I moved one of the power heads to the left rear of the tank, aimed slightly upward and am bouncing it off the front wall about 1/3 of the way from the left side. The right power head is pointed toward the back slightly and is glancing off the rear wall immediately behind the tall rock structure. There is not a lot of room back there - the power head is only a few inches away from the rear wall, so it is almost firing down the rear wall. I may need to move the right rock structure to the left a few inches and maybe forward an inch or so to get more angle towards the wall on the pump. That said, I seem to have pretty decent flow (tried air bubbles, no flake food yet) and am no longer getting a big bald spot on the bottom (front center) as I did with the two pumps on the left wall. I even turned up the flow and the sand is pretty stable through mavericks at 50%. I hope I can make these locations work as the power heads are really out of the sight lines.

 

[roostertech]

On the right track, just let the tank does its thing. Now is time to get the fishes ready

 

[RandyC]

Patience is your friend. Even some new tanks that use dr Tim's can take a month to cycle (@Gablami). For reference, without bacteria supplements, it took a full two weeks before I saw nitrite. And exactly 31 days until my cycle was complete.

I wouldn't bother dosing now. Things will settle out after your next few water changes.

 

[scuzy]

Dosing will be a waste at this stage. Let your tank go it's course. I use biospira and it cycled in 1.5 weeks but that really depends on the setup every tank is different m

 

[daddio]

The waiting is sooo hard. I presume you didn't add Prime or other de-clorinator.

 

[WCKDVPR]

I did not add Prime or any declorinator. I do have a 6-stage BRS RODI which is supposed to remove all the chlorine.

Doing TTM on the fishes so I can probably get pretty serious about getting a pair of clowns in a week or two. Derrick is down for 6 months, where to get a great pair (thinking percula, or maybe a morph - but nothing crazy)

As far as dosing, etc, I figure now is a good time to play around with things and see the effects are of what I do - likely not going to kill the bacteria if I miss by a bit..........

My 8020 arrived to build my light mounts, but I am still probably 3+ weeks away from the Mitras arriving. I will have a refugium light that I could use over the QT(s) for the fish.

Going to have to avoid the coral market this weekend or I will likely buy something I am not even close to ready for. I stopped by CA today and they had some very nice corals, it was tough to just look. The good side is, looking at the price vs. size, I am thinking I am going to have to take my wife coral shopping. She is probably going to look at the little frags for $20 and the big pieces for $80-100 and ask how long does it take for those little guys to grow up? When she hears the answer, I'd be surprised if she isn't the one pushing for larger specimens. She is not a big fan of the empty tank sitting in our family room - which is where she spends a lot of time. She wants stuff in there. Which is good.

 

[Gablami]

Mike, you've been so patient so far. Don't jump to the more expensive colonies until your little frags are alive and growing for a couple months. There's a lot to learn and expensive corals are not the ones you want to be experimenting on. Take it from me...I spent a lot of money early on SPS, and none of them are alive now. So start slow, with softies and LPS and maybe some cheap SPS frags (which you can also pretty easily get from the club) and once you have some tester SPS frags doing well for awhile, then start shopping with your wife .

I would also recommend starting slow with adding fish. The bioload of your tank needs to grow accordingly and many new reef tanks have been taken down by nuisance algae. There's usually an "ugly" stage before the "pretty" stage.


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[Vhuang168]

I'm sure we can find some sps for you to start with from my tank.

I have a pretty big piece of plating monti cap growing on the floor of my tank that I can pull as well as some digitata and seriatopra hystrix.

If you are adventurous, I have some Miyagi tort as well.

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[Gablami]

I'm sure we can find some sps for you to start with from my tank.

I have a pretty big piece of plating monti cap growing on the floor of my tank that I can pull as well as some digitata and seriatopra hystrix.

If you are adventurous, I have some Miyagi tort as well.

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Having access to Vincent's tank is better than shopping at most LFS . Your wife might clear him out of corals!


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[WCKDVPR]

Thanks Vincent! I am pretty adventurous.

Gabe - I'll sent you a conversation - I'll take the light. Driving through Fremont today at 2:30 or so. Otherwise could do PA on Sunday.

 

[WCKDVPR]

Gabe - I miss typed my cell phone number..................ooops. Sent conversation. Friday lunch works for me if possible.

 

[WCKDVPR]

My 8020 showed up so I assembled my light stand for the 3 Mitras. Should be nice as I can easily move the entire stand up/down and the 3 short perpendicular tubes that will mount directly to the Mitras can move left and right and front to back. Just loosen a few cap screws and any piece is movable.

Good news on the cycle front, 8 days in and I started getting a reading on Nitrate! Timing is just about right for when the Mitras should show up (probably 3 more weeks).

Ammonia: 1 ppm (down from a starting point of 4 ppm)
Nitrite: >> 5 ppm
Nitrate: 2.5 ppm
pH: 7.95
Sal: 34.5
Temp: 80.5 - 81.0 (for the cycle only)

 

[RandyC]

My 8020 showed up so I assembled my light stand for the 3 Mitras. Should be nice as I can easily move the entire stand up/down and the 3 short perpendicular tubes that will mount directly to the Mitras can move left and right and front to back. Just loosen a few cap screws and any piece is movable.

Good news on the cycle front, 8 days in and I started getting a reading on Nitrate! Timing is just about right for when the Mitras should show up (probably 3 more weeks).

Ammonia: 1 ppm (down from a starting point of 4 ppm)
Nitrite: >> 5 ppm
Nitrate: 2.5 ppm
pH: 7.95
Sal: 34.5
Temp: 80.5 - 81.0 (for the cycle only)

Nitrites higher than 5ppm can cause your cycle to stall. WC would be suggested to bring it under 5ppm. Also, when the nictrobacter really kicks off, your nitrite will seemingly just disappear real quick (overnight).

 

[WCKDVPR]

Good to know, thanks! I am only using the API test kit for ammonia and nitrite (didn't want to spend a bunch of money on fancy test kits to only use them for the cycle). All the other tests/readings are using Milwaukee, Hanna, or Salifert so I feel much more comfortable with those readings.

I'll keep a really close eye on nitrite (the color purple on the test sample was brighter than 5 ppm on the card, so I am just assuming it is >5 ppm). If it doesn't look better tonight, I start swapping out water until it is under 5 ppm.

Maybe next weekend might be the time to get a pair of clowns into TTM QT? All the reading I am doing and input I have received on anemones has me rethinking it that is a smart addition or not. Definitely want to do some torch/hammer/frogspawn coral in the tank, maybe the clowns would take up residency there?

Best regards!

 

[daddio]

When your ammonia drops to 1ppm, do you add more ammonia?

 

[WCKDVPR]

I am assuming the bacteria needs to be fed. I was planning on letting ammonia drop to 0.25 ppm and then adding a bit of fish food.

 

[RandyC]

I am assuming the bacteria needs to be fed. I was planning on letting ammonia drop to 0.25 ppm and then adding a bit of fish food.

Probably wouldn't bother. It'll just mean you'll have more nitrate to get rid of once the tank is cycled.

 

[WCKDVPR]

When the tank is cycled and I do the big water change, what is the typical % of the system volume swapped out or is there a target NO3 that is aimed for?

Thanks!